Houston cops and open-carry protester can’t see eye-to-eye and the cops tried to erase his cellphone video recording of the confrontation but were not tech-savvy enough to do it
Recently an open-carry protester carrying an AR-15 and a large poster sign was standing on the corner of Bay Area and Reseda in the Clear Lake subdivision of Houston. He was also carrying a cellphone with a video camera and a copy of the U.S. Constitution. Apparently he scared some people because two Houston police patrol cars rolled up. The protester starts videoing the scene.
A confrontation takes place. One cop throws the poster sign to the ground. The cops tell him he’s scaring people to death and ask for his ID. The protester says he doesn’t have any ID on him but he does tell them his name. The cops say they have no way of knowing if that is his true name or if he is a felon who is prohibited from owning any firearms. They ask him to put the AR-15 down. He replies that he won’t ‘consent’ to that. The cops then take the protester’s gun anyway and inform him that he’s under arrest for failure to identify.
The back and forth banter continued. According to the Houston Press, “The open carry guy then demands to talk to a damned sheriff or sergeant or something, claiming his rights are being violated.” The cops then threaten to erase the video from his cellphone. The video, which keeps on running, briefly shows the cops trying to erase it from the phone. They were obviously not tech-savvy enough because the protester has released the four-minute clip for everyone to see.
I do not know how the case was disposed of. Court rulings allow citizens to videotape cops at work and require the police to obtain a search warrant before accessing a citizen’s cellphone. Texas’s law requires a person to provide their name, residence address and date of birth if lawfully arrested and asked by police, but a detained person – the protester in this case - is not required to provide any identifying information.
All this took place only a few blocks from my home. It looks as though what we have here is a bunch of knuckleheads confronting each other.
1 comment:
If people were alarmed by his actions and the police were called to the scene, then he could have been arrested for Disorderly Conduct and Failure to Identify.
Sec. 42.01. DISORDERLY CONDUCT.
(2) makes an offensive gesture or display in a public place, and the gesture or display tends to incite an immediate breach of the peace;
(8) displays a firearm or other deadly weapon in a public place in a manner calculated to alarm;
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